Enterprise Week

During Enterprise Week, one of the events I chose to attend was a two-hour lecture with a speaker, entitled ‘If it all goes wrong I’ll get a job,’ whereby the purpose of the talk was to give first-hand insight into becoming an entrepreneur.

The speaker in question was a highly successful owner of an advertising recording studio business, who explained how he went about starting his business from scratch, giving first-hand insight into successes and failures he encountered along the way, and how to deal with them. Such problems included raising finances, such as acquiring loans from the bank, and working cohesively with partners, issues which are present for most entrepreneurs.

 As a result I felt the event was extremely useful, due to the fact that, as business degree students, we were given a level of first-hand insight into addressing the problems encountered in setting up and running a business not offered by textbook theories.

It was principally interesting to hear what the speaker felt, from experience, were personal qualities required in order to become a successful entrepreneur, such as the ability to take risks and apply strong determination in order to get things done.

However, what I felt was particularly enlightening was the speaker’s opinion on traits not to have. Primarily, it was insisted that no entrepreneurial venture would be successful with a lack of strong personal desire and passion for the business, due to the fact that without motivation, a person is not encouraged to achieve aims required to the best of their abilities. I feel such advice is particularly applicable to me in the type of career I pursue further on in life; the business event has shown me I need to consider personal happiness when considering possible career routes, not just selecting the routes that would be the most successful financially and in terms of status.

Furthermore, the speaker, explaining how to determine if an entrepreneurial idea is good or not, also addressed issues I previously had with the level of risk involved in investing in new product routes and ventures. The business owner’s primary advice, in answer to the issue of garnering whether the outcome of a decision would be successful or not, was to research as widely and extensively as possible. It was stipulated that the role of the entrepreneur is to come up with new ideas and concepts which ‘satisfy a gap in the market’, and that, in order to understand the market as widely as possible, it is required to research all aspects of the venture, from the needs of target consumers, to buying trends and potential competitors. However, the speaker emphasised that such research should be coupled with a ‘risk-taking’ nature, in order to come up with new and original concepts not explored before.

As a result of this, I not only feel more equipped in knowing how to judge whether a potential idea  or decision will be successful or not within my business career, I also feel inspired to adopt a more risk-taking nature within such a career, and feel encouraged to look at new and unknown routes rather than making safe decisions.

Conclusively, I feel that the business event on entrepreneurship not only gave helpful and first-hand insight into the day-to-day aspects of setting up and running a business, but was successful in inspiring me to see the benefits of being a risk-taker rather than risk-averse, and thus illustrating a different and more exciting level to the sort of career I could have in business.